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News

Harmonics to Shine a Light on Homelessness

Harmonics is delighted to back Focus Ireland’s Shine A Light event in the Mid-West and be an ambassador for the business community. On Friday October 18, the eighth annual Shine A Light Night will see business leaders sleep-out at Limerick’s historic King John’s Castle in addition to locations in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford and Cork.

Harmonics is proud to be associated as a local Mid-West business with Focus Ireland because of the work they do in changing lives. Much of our work at Harmonics is supporting people who have lost their jobs and we help them to get back on track with our career coaching and financial advice.

We look forward to encouraging many more businesses and their teams to join us.

More details about the Shine A Light Night can be found below.  Please join us!

Focus Ireland announce King John’s Castle to host

Shine A Light Night 2019

The rate of homelessness in Limerick is increasing at an alarming rate with 265 adults currently without a home. In response, Bord Gáis Energy has confirmed the extension of its longstanding partnership with homelessness charity, Focus Ireland, to sponsor its annual fundraising initiative – Shine A Light Night.

On Friday October 18, the eighth annual Shine A Light Night will see business leaders sleep-out at Limerick’s historic King John’s Castle in addition to locations in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford and Cork. Employees of businesses around Ireland can also sign up to support the initiative by pledging to fundraise and sleep-out at their workplace.

Shine A Light Night challenges business leaders across Ireland to sleep-out for one night and in doing so, raise vital funds to help alleviate homelessness.

Speaking at the event, Kate McGrath, Project Leader of Focus Ireland Mid-West Services said, “Focus Ireland works tirelessly with people experiencing homelessness to help them secure their home or to ensure they leave homelessness for good. We also work extensively across the area of prevention to make sure many other families and individuals in the Mid-West never become homeless in the first place. We rely on the support of organisations like Bord Gáis Energy to make a success of fundraising events like Shine A Light Night and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their generous support.”

Shine A Light Night is being backed by 2018 All-Ireland winning Captain Declan Hannon: “It’s great to show my support for such an important charity like Focus Ireland. I’m well aware of the work Focus Ireland does in Limerick and I hope our county can again lead the way in showing our support for such an important night. The evening will be made extra special as it’s taking place in the historic King John’s Castle, a building which is synonymous with the city.”

There are 1,700 families homeless in Ireland today and this number is growing. In Limerick, Focus Ireland provides prevention and housing advice, support services for families, support services for young people, short and long-term housing, and research-based services.

Commenting at the launch of Shine A Light Night in King John’s Castle, Darren Staunton Key Account Manager with Bord Gáis Energy said, “The current homeless crisis in towns and communities across Ireland is worse than ever. It is heart-breaking that 3,749 children in Ireland today have no home. Bord Gáis Energy is committed to supporting Focus Ireland in the crucial work it does to address the causes of homelessness and increase support for those who are at risk of losing their home.

“Shine A Light Night is an incredible initiative that has gathered more and more support year on year. However, with the alarming rise in homelessness, we need this year’s event to be bigger than ever in raising vital funds to support this devastating social issue. We are extremely proud to sponsor this year’s campaign and as an official sponsor of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, we are delighted that Limerick Hurling Captain Declan Hannon is joining us in supporting Shine A Light Night. We urge every business in Limerick and the surrounding region to join us, sign up and give one night to make this the most successful Shine A Light Night yet. It may simply be one night of your life, but it can save suffering for those who are homeless.”

To date, Shine A Light Night has raised over €4m for people experiencing homelessness in Ireland. In 2018, this support enabled Focus Ireland to help over 15,500 people. With the support of the business community, every day Focus Ireland moves a family out of homelessness into a secure home of their own.

Leading people management organisation Harmonics has committed to taking part in Shine a Light 2019. John Fitzgerald MD of Harmonics said “Harmonics is proud to be associated as a local Mid-West business with Focus Ireland because of the work they do in changing lives. Much of our work at Harmonics is supporting people who have lost their jobs and we help them to get back on track with our career coaching and financial advice”

Concluding, Niall O Callaghan, Managing Director of Shannon Heritage said, “We at King John’s Castle are humbled to host Shine a Light Night 2019. We are delighted to make this historic venue available to help put the modern crisis of homelessness into clear focus and I encourage the business community to join us on October 18th. It promises to be a special night and I would like to thank everyone who made it possible.”

For further information contact Aoife Sheehan, Limerick Area Fundraising and Marketing Executive for Focus Ireland on 086 8532201 or at aoife.sheehan@focusireland.ie

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News Webinar

Fuel 50 Webinar: Future-Proofing Careers

Watch a recording of this webinar where John Fitzgerald shares highlights from the Harmonics’ Future Workforce Readiness: Research Study 2019.

This study set out to discover how “future ready” the workforce really is by examining the five characteristics critical to future career readiness. Join us to:

·   Learn how to plan for systemic change that will transform organisation culture & capability

·   Discover how organisations upskill and build greater capability and employability

·   Gain rich insights from a global perspective on Leadership, Organisation Change and Future Workforce Readiness

According to John, “Future Career Readiness is the critical indicator that illustrates the gap between your current and future workforce readiness to change. Yet it is the one thing that never gets measured.”

Watch now: https://www.fuel50.com/webinars/future-proofing-careers/

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Blog

Summit Helps Businesses Prepare for Change

Harmonics recently hosted a Mid-West Region Global Summit on Future Proofing Organisations at the Strand Hotel, Limerick.

Watch this short 5 minute video which captures the key points from the diversity of speakers and global panel at the event.

Over 80 Local Senior Business Leaders from some of the largest employers in the Mid-West Region met Change, Leadership and Coaching Practitioners from the USA, South America, Canada, UK, Europe and Australia to share their diverse insights on Change, Leadership and Communication.

The event was a resounding success with excellent speakers from home and abroad, covering a wide variety of topics. There is exponential change happening in organisations in the region and this means the structures and systems that served us well in times of certainty are now impeding progress as they move to more agile models to adapt and pivot quickly to stay ahead of change.

Marie Toft delivered an impactful presentation on the power storytelling through video and how companies can connect emotionally and stand out from their competitors in an authentic way.  Marie is CEO of Emotionise & Former Senior Producer with RTE & BBC and works closely with Harmonics to help employers create emotionally connected messages to attract talent.

Neville Bourke, Organisation Change Specialist with Futurus OCM and Eugene Barrett, Site Director, GE Cork shared insights on the transformational change that GE as an organisation has undertaken and the people change journey over the past two years.

Gerry Cahill, Site Director, Roche in Clarecastle also spoke in a refreshing, honest and vulnerable way on how he and his team in Roche worked to build greater capability and employability with all of their people over a 3-year period ahead of impending site closure.

John Fitzgerald, Founder and MD of Harmonics, shared the findings from a Harmonics global research project on the Future Workforce Readiness. It showed a gap between individuals’ perception of their future career readiness versus their actual level of readiness. Some headlines of note show 1 in 5 are actively seeking to leave their current employers, while 34 is the age when career growth declines for women. In fact, a staggering 42% of all those surveyed had either hit a career ceiling, become frustrated or described their workplace as toxic. The research survey is free for anyone to complete on www.futurecareerreadiness.com.

Global Perspectives were shared from a panel of OI Global Partner Leaders on a range of topics from growing emerging leaders, how to manage the ageing workforce, workplace trauma and transversal change. The Summit ended with collaborative round table discussions on the topics raised and how they related to businesses and Leaders in the region.

John Fitzgerald MD of Harmonics who was the brainchild behind the summit said, “The Future Proofing Summit was really well received. I am hearing from our local Leaders today and they want more events like this where they can share best practice and all learn from each other in a collaborative environment. This co-operation is how we continue to grow the Mid-West Region and future proof our regional businesses and their workforce”.

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News

New Study Finds 64% is average score for Future Career Readiness

Future Workforce Readiness Research Study Revealed

Busyness is leading to False Confidence in being Prepared for Future of Work

Harmonics, the Irish partner of OI Global Partners (one of the world’s largest career consulting partnerships), has released the findings from its Future Workforce Readiness Research Study. The purpose of the study was to measure the preparedness of the workforce for the massive changes ahead in the new world of work. In doing so, it also looked at how organisations can prepare their workforce for the Future of Work.

The study examined how the workforce is thinking in relation to their career now and their future intentions and found that 42% have hit a career ceiling, feel frustrated or are in a toxic situation. Alarmingly, 1 in 5 are actively seeking to leave their employers and pursuing a new role externally. This was highest for males (24%) in the 35-44 age category and for females (23%) in the 45-54 age category.

When looking at comparisons between male and female respondents, the study noted that 34 is the age when the career growth trajectory declines for women.  In the 25-34 age category, 38% of female respondents described themselves in a career growth stage. This drops to 31% in the 35-44 age category and lower again to 22% in the 45 – 54 category. The study also observed that females identify themselves as having ‘Hit a Career Ceiling’ more so than their male counterparts for all these age bands.

John Fitzgerald, managing director of Harmonics and author of the research study said, “Our study shows a very high percentage are either disengaged with their employer or don’t see opportunity for career growth. It highlights the opportunity that exists for organisations to engage with their employees in meaningful career development conversations -especially in a market where talent is so scarce.  This silent dissatisfaction is workforce data that requires urgent attention and can create obvious wins with the correct interventions.”

Among the key findings of the survey, 64% is the average score for Future Career Readiness. However, when broken down, the results showed a clear disconnect between a persons perceptions of their future career readiness versus their actual level of readiness. The key theme emerging is a lack of readiness to take advantage of workplace change that is happening now.

According to Mr Fitzgerald, “People think they are better prepared than they actually are. While they may be confident in their professional and personal development, the busyness of daily work tasks and lack of longer-term planning may be leading to an over-confidence in their capability to succeed in the future of work. There was a distinct lack of preparation for the impact of AI and automation and awareness of how they can bridge the gap so they can stay ahead in their careers.”

“The speed of change in the global economy means employers are almost always in a restructuring and change mode. Plus, the rise of AI and automation is leading to new ways of working. For organisations, this means traditional workforce planning is no longer fit for purpose and job descriptions are in constant flux. For individuals, climbing the traditional career ladder no longer makes sense as a lifelong career strategy,” he continued.

Over 500 working professionals from 21 countries worldwide participated in the study during spring 2019.  The majority of respondents were from Ireland.

Harmonics designed the Future Career Readiness Index, an online tool, to help organizations take an ‘instant pulse’ on how their workforce is thinking in relation to their career now and their future intentions.

“Future career readiness is the critical indicator that illustrates the gap between your current and future workforce readiness to change. Yet it is the one thing that never gets measured,” concluded Mr Fitzgerald.

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News

Mid-West Global Summit

Future Proofing Organisations & their Workforce

Harmonics, in association with OI Global Partners, will host a global summit where local senior business leaders from some of the largest employers in the Mid-West region will meet change, leadership and coaching practitioners from the US, South America, Canada, UK, Europe and Australia to share their diverse insights on Change.

The exponential change we are seeing in corporate organisations means the structures and systems that served us well in times of certainty are now impeding progress as we move to more agile models to adapt and pivot quickly to stay ahead of change.

This summit will explore Future Proofing from multiple perspectives.

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Blog

Disrupt Yourself

Growth is cyclical; we have seen this in the economy with boom times and recessions. The mistake many people make is to become over confident in the boom times and believe they are invincible. What they need to do is disrupt themselves and reinvest in their skills to stay in growth.

Here’s a case in point:  I met Ger, a busy executive in the insurance industry, and we discussed the projects his company was working on. He cited robotisation and automation as big projects in his sector. He was busy working on these projects and loving what he was doing.

I then asked him about the project timelines and what was next for him beyond these projects. He said he simply hadn’t had the time to consider the future as he had immersed himself in the work. I sounded a signal, warning him not to take his eyes off his career future while he worked on his current projects.

I had been giving a Future of Work talk for Ger’s employer, and afterwards we had a brief coaching session. He said the talk had given him food for thought and that he had been blindly busy, not paying enough attention to his long-term career. He admitted that as he had risen through the organisation by people recommending him for new roles, he had never stood back and thought about what he wanted to do.

I shared the innovative S curve model with him. He needed to take control of his next move rather than depend on others.

Disrupting ourselves while we are in growth can be hard to do, because we are likely to be happy as we are. We have not been educated to go and find roles for ourselves; we tend to depend on managers and recruiters to find our next moves.

Research by Deloitte shows that the younger, mobile talent start thinking about their next move within eighteen months of taking on a job. This is alien to the older generation who grew up on a diet of structure and stability. But it is within your control at any age to decide how you want to grow your career.

Career progression is not just promotion

Don’t get hooked into believing the bright lights of promotion are the only indicators of career progression. As organisations have become flatter, there are simply fewer steps to climb on the career ladder. I would prefer it if people would talk about a skills ladder, considering what new skills they want to learn in their next career move. I know money is important, but having the most valuable skills will mean you can earn the most money on lucrative projects which don’t always mean a step up the ladder.

Future Proof Yourself

The above is an extract from the book ‘Future Proof Your Career’. Written by John Fitzgerald, Future Proof Your Career is a practical book which deals with one of the great problems of modern life: how to make it through a 50-year career when all the rules for career success have changed. Get it now on Amazon

Another resource that will help you is the Future Career Readiness Index. It’s a powerful free online tool that evaluates the five key characteristics of a future-ready mindset. The assessment takes less than 10 minutes to complete and allows you to benchmark your readiness for the future of work against that of others globally. You will receive your own personalised rating and a free comprehensive report that offers rich insights into the key areas to accelerate your future career.

To gain access and learn more, visit www.futurecareerreadiness.com

Please feel free to get in touch and share your thoughts at futureproof@harmonics.ie

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News

Accountancy Ireland Magazine Article

The Age of Disruption
An article by John Fitzgerald featured in Accountancy Ireland recently – the magazine for Chartered Accountants in Ireland. In the article he talks about why we should all care about the future of work. In short, our employability depends on it.
Read on https://www.charteredaccountants.ie/Accountancy-Ireland/Home/AI-Articles/the-age-of-disruption
The Age of Disruption
Why should you care about the future of work? In short, your employability depends on it. There are huge similarities in the approaches being taken to both the future of work and climate change. It’s out there, we know it’s happening; but we are too busy in our daily work to give it sufficient time and thought, thereby limiting our capacity to adapt before it’s too late. Most readers will be familiar with Stephen Covey’s time management quadrant. The future of work is in quadrant two: not urgent, but important. We tend to focus on the urgent to-do list and the reality of meeting deadlines. In this article, I will outline the importance of investing time in your future employability and explain why everyone should care about the future of work.
Why should you care?
The average life expectancy of a Fortune 500 organisation is just 15 years, so individuals can no longer assume that employment is for life. Business competitors no longer come from within your industry sector; they mostly sprout up and scale at speed to grab huge market share. Airbnb was not started by hoteliers, Uber was not founded within the taxi industry, Netflix was not started within the media industry. This speed of change will catch you unaware if you are busy with your head down.
Accountancy firms compete fiercely to hire entry level graduates. However, they will need fewer graduates in the future as an increasing variety of manual tasks become automated. As accountants, you learned your trade as juniors by conducting audits in industry. You got to see and understand how businesses operate in real life. How will graduates get this experience if and when the work is automated? Change is required in the education and integration of accounting graduates into the future world of work.
While Ireland is in the midst of an employment boom, we are witnessing the rise of corporate outplacement programmes as finance and accounting roles become automated. These roles, along with administration and middle management, featured consistently in the Harmonics Global Future of Work Study as the top three roles in decline. The work you did in the past is changing rapidly. Almost every organisation is undertaking a lean transformation or robotic process automation project of routine manual-entry tasks to achieve greater scale, speed and cost efficiency. As an example, Revenue’s move to real-time data as part of its PAYE Modernisation programme eliminates the need for the P30, P45 and P60 forms, along with end-of-year returns. Digits on a spreadsheet are easily mapped into software applications, which takes the pain away and simplifies work. PwC recently launched a digital fitness app for employees worldwide to accelerate and upskill the digital knowledge of its people across a range of domains. Digital acumen is now a lifelong endeavour, which needs to be embraced to stay employable.
Big data is valuable and business intelligence dashboards offer real-time data on key business metrics. Artificially intelligent machines will provide answers, but our potential in the future of work is in the questions we ask. Think about a calculator – we’ve all used one to do a quick calculation. The next stage was Googling a simple question to get an instant answer. Now, imagine inputting a complex accounting scenario into a computer programme, and back come your options. In this scenario, massive computational power has replaced manual effort. Indeed, computing is increasing in power and reducing in price – in 2023, it is expected that €1,000 will buy you computational power equivalent to that of the human brain. A recent World Economic Forum report estimated that total work tasks in 2018 were 70/30 in favour of humans over machines.
This will evolve speedily to 60/40 by 2022. We are not far off equilibrium in terms of the ratio between human and machine tasks in the workplace, and this demands change on our part. Like our organisations, we too have new competitors for our work – smart machines – and we need to learn how to work with them, rather than compete with them, into the future. The smart machines I speak of are software bots that are learning 24/7 and replicating the work we currently do on our computers.
The Organisational Impact
The hierarchical organisation chart that once created vertical career ladders in a functional silo no longer makes sense. This is a major challenge for future organisation design. The organisation chart of the future is organic and constantly evolving. Work architecture needs to be broken up like Lego and reconfigured into human and machine pieces. Organisations are neither resourced nor ready for such an eventuality. Like Lego, the work pieces will need be broken down and reconfigured for every new business challenge. This will lead to the demise of rigid functional silos and will require agile and cross-functional networked systems that evolve to meet specific customer needs.
What can you do now? You can prepare by letting go of the past – something we, as humans, find very hard to do. We like routine, certainty and security. Accounting roles are transitioning away from day-to-day number crunching to focus more on interpreting data, building financial models aligned to company strategies/initiatives and project-based work with key stakeholders and other departments. I speak about the nine critical human skills needed in my new book, Future Proof Your Career, which will be available soon on Amazon. The future of work will demand lifelong devotion to the development of critical human skills including critical thinking, communication, creativity, consulting, commercial acumen, collaboration and embracing new cultures – all of which will need to be complemented by ever-changing digital skills. It is not only a skillset shift that is required, but a mindset one. If you have a fixed mindset, resist change and are unwilling to upskill, then your job and your future employability is in jeopardy – but this is within your control.
Finally, I invite you to take part in our global future career readiness research project. It is aimed at working professionals to honestly evaluate how future-ready you are. The Future Career Readiness Index is a powerful instrument that allows you to quickly test your future career readiness in five key areas. It takes less than 10 minutes to benchmark yourself against others in your sector and profession. On completion, you will receive a free downloadable Future Career Readiness report to accelerate your future career. You can access the report at www.futurecareerreadiness.com.My parting career advice is this: disrupt yourself before you are disrupted.
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Blog

New Online Tool to Prepare Global Workforce for Future of Work

Harmonics Group, an indigenous Irish firm and lead member of OI Global Partners (one of the world’s largest career consulting partnerships), has launched a dynamic online research tool to measure how prepared individuals are for the future of work.

With the rise of AI and automation leading to new ways of working, Harmonics developed the Future Career Readiness Index to help busy working professionals to take stock and anticipate the critical skills they will need for future career success.

The impact of technology is bringing a lot of uncertainty and change to the global workforce. And, according to Harmonics who have been researching this area for a number of years, the greatest amount of change ever in corporate history will be experienced in the next five years.

John Fitzgerald, managing director of Harmonics Group, said “There has been a lot of scare-mongering about the ‘robots are coming’ in recent years. And it’s true, it is estimated that by 2025, more than half of all workplace tasks will be carried out by machines. But there is very little practical career advice available on how to prepare for these changes.”

The Future Career Readiness Index is designed for working professionals at any stage of their career; it’s free and takes just 10 minutes to complete online. The results are presented in a comprehensive downloadable report which identifies an individual’s key areas for development and includes 20 powerful career coaching questions to help them accelerate their future career.

The methodology behind the Index is based on the ‘Future of Work Globe’, a model created by Harmonics Group from their work with over 20,000 people.  The Future of Work Globe illustrates the dynamic and evolving nature of work. It takes a 3-dimensional perspective and looks at the internal drivers (personal and professional development), the changing needs of organisations (internal market) and the rapidly changing world of work (external environment). The 20 statements presented in the Index are designed to score individuals on the 5 areas of most importance to their future career success.

“It is estimated that 75 million jobs worldwide will be lost in the next five years, but 133 million new roles will also be created. There will be winners and losers across all levels and professions. Every week I meet people who are too busy and focused on their current job to plan for their future career.  They need to change before they become a victim of change,” he continued.

“The skills to succeed in the future are very different to what were required just three years ago. We can’t compete against smart machines, but we can learn to work side by side and hone our unique human skills to advance. We also need to develop a growth mindset, just like leading sports professionals, so that we can adapt to new ways of working and be at our best,” said Mr Fitzgerald.

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News

Global Survey Reveals Skills in Demand & Roles at Risk

Harmonics, the Irish partner of OI Global Partners (one of the world’s largest career consulting partnerships), has released the results of its third annual proprietary survey of global leaders from the 28 countries in which OIGP operates. Talent managers and HR professionals representing over 1,000 organizations — more than double last year’s response rate — were from a range of industries led by Financial Services and Technology followed by Manufacturing, Nonprofits, Hospitals & Healthcare, and Education.

The goals of the survey were to understand the following:

  1. the skills employees must have to be competitive today;
  2. the most significant people challenges currently facing organizations;
  3. the most effective ways to develop talent; and
  4. the roles most at risk.

Almost 10% of the respondents were from Ireland.

John Fitzgerald, managing director of Harmonics, said “The results show that in every part of the world, organizations share common challenges and risks and they have found a variety of solutions to manage the evolving work landscape – some which may be more effective than others.”

Among the key findings of the survey, respondents indicated that the top two skills employees must have to be competitive are: 1) leadership agility: the ability to take effective action in complex, rapidly-changing conditions; and 2) coordinating with others: the ability to collaborate, especially in changing environments.

John Fitzgerald noted, “There is a direct correlation between the number one most valued skill and one of the key people challenges that organisations are facing – adapting to change. The speed of change in the global economy means employers are almost always in a restructuring and change mode. Every organisation now wants agile people as they are more likely to adapt to change.”

Recruitment is the most critical concern of talent managers today with most of them saying that attracting and hiring new talent is their biggest challenge. “We are very much still in an employee driven marketplace. There is quite simply a global scarcity of specialized talent. From our experience, an organisation’s employer value proposition (EVP) needs to promise more than extrinsic rewards. Companies who align their EVP to the organisations purpose will have a competitive advantage in the race for talent,” noted Mr Fitzgerald.

Half of talent managers say that adapting to change significantly challenges their organisations, making it the second most frequently indicated human resources issue after recruitment, followed by managers lacking coaching skills. Once on board, retaining and engaging employees become paramount.

“The same five people challenges have occupied the attention of organisations each year we have conducted this survey; they have just traded places, so there is a high level of consistency” commented Mr. Fitzgerald.

Leadership development programmes are seen as the number one most effective talent development followed by annualized personal development reviews and assessments ranking second and third.

“The popularity of annualized personal development reviews and assessments surprised us because our experience indicates that these are not effective talent management activities. We believe this high response relates to the lack of time managers have to coach their people. Employees need regular development conversations and assessments need to be linked to an OD strategy to be effective. Training managers as coaches and one-to-one executive coaching can be much more effective interventions,” commented Mr. Fitzgerald.

The roles most at risk are:

  1. finance and accounting roles, which moved up dramatically in the ranking;
  2. administrative and support staff, in keeping with 2017’s results;
  3. managerial roles, especially middle management as Organisations become flatter and less hierarchical.

“The decline of routine repetitive work continues apace as a result of automation and AI. This is hitting both high and low skill occupations. An eagerness to learn and indeed relearn has never been more necessary for those whose roles are at risk,” said Mr. Fitzgerald.

In conclusion, Mr Fitzgerald said, “These survey results highlight the need for both employers and employees to stay agile, continuously adapt to change and demonstrate an eagerness to learn for life to stay competitive.”

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Blog

4 Realistic Retention Strategies for HR

The retention of talent is the number one challenge for so many HR professionals right now. Here, I share four strategies to help you address your talent retention challenges.

Managing the “I want it now” population – It is important to be realistic about how long you expect talent to stay. If you are hiring someone in their 20’s or 30’s, they are looking for new experiences to grow their career. They want it now. They don’t want to wait like the generation before them. Recent research has shown that, on average, talent get itchy feet after 18 months and want the next new project to give them a new challenge. They have learned, grown on the job and are hungry for career progression. If you, as their employer, can’t deliver a new opportunity for them, they are a flight risk and will begin to explore new opportunities externally.

Knowing this timeframe of 18 months is a critical time to introduce Career Coaching Conversations. However, too often organisations are directing their people to a Learning Management system that offers mandatory training but does not meet their need to assess their next new career move. If your organisation wants to retain talent, you need to help your people discover what they really want next in their career. Then you can share how your organisation can meet their future career development needs. These career conversations are too often happening as part of an exit interview when your best talent has handed in their notice and it’s too late.

Supporting Managers who “Don’t want to talk about it now” – Managers don’t want to have career conversations with their employees because they fear they will be unable to meet their career expectations. This “want it now” talent population are often looking for promotion, more money and a sense they are making progress and climbing the career ladder. They are most likely looking to get a mortgage and want to bring their base salary up to a level that is attractive for a bank to lend them money. Organisations need to marry the reality of what it can afford and offer with how their talent can become more marketable when they leave and then need to support their managers in having those conversations.

Managers need to become more skilled at empathising, understanding what people want and then educating and communicating the reality of what they can offer. It is a manager’s role to help their people to understand that Organizations have become flatter and career progression is not just about promotion. Managers need support so they can face up to career conversations to help their people build a picture on how they can co-create skills and knowledge building opportunities that may not be just about promotion, but helping their people become much more valuable in their career future.

Be prepared to “Let them go” – I wish organizations were more realistic and set a timeline of five years as a great tenure for talent to stay these days. If a 5 year goal is set, then the employer can create a new psychological contract with their talent – that is, “You help us to grow our business and we will keep giving you experiences to help you grow your career”. In a world where jobs are unlikely to be permanent, employers and employees need to add value to each other. Reid Hoffman co-founder of LinkedIn suggests employees invest in the company’s adaptability and employers invest in employee’s employability. This makes so much sense as the new psychological contract for work, yet I come across many organisations that close their minds to the idea of enhancing their employees’ employability for fear they will leave. Get to know your people, their motivations and aspirations, this will enable you to match them with skills building projects and new experiences – giving them the opportunity to learn and grow. Then, like you would with an adolescent leaving home after secondary school, you just to let them go.

Success should be seeing them flourishing elsewhere knowing they made a great difference while they stayed and that you enabled them to achieve their career goals. It is not good for talent to stay in one organization for too long. They need to learn new skills, knowledge and experiences in new environments that you will likely never be able to offer them. Wish them well and they will share with others how you helped them be the best they can be. They will become a referral network for you to attract new talent. Having a realistic goal of 5 years gives you a return on your career development investment and sets you both up for a win-win.

Understanding different cultures – Last week, I was coaching an IT Manager who had recently joined a traditional organisational to drive a change agenda. Her remit from her new Head of Function was to scope out the changes they needed to make and to lead and drive this change project. She scoped out the change and met with the key stakeholders to outline and communicate the change that was needed across divisions. There was a lot of resistance to any change being implemented. The managers had long service and this change would impact their roles. They had too much invested in the past and were of a fixed mindset. This new manager had come from working in smaller start-ups and was struggling with the slow-moving nature of this culture.

I advised her to meet her Head of Function for a chat to discuss her remit to drive change and to help her understand the politics and how the culture really worked in there. She needed to learn how to drive change in a traditional culture and her Head of Function needed to help her navigate the politics of her new employer. She hadn’t spoken to her new boss for fear they wouldn’t understand, but the reality was neither had spoken to each other and it could have ended in her leaving out of frustration with the new culture. Our coaching conversation helped her to see all perspectives before she made a rash decision to leave. This intervention helped her to re-calibrate and see this new project as a new challenge she had not experienced before rather than rushing out the door to a new employer. The conversation with her Head of Function resulted in both taking a half day off-site to clarify and align their vision and strategy. The very worst thing that could have happened was her Head of Function didn’t listen and then she would have known for sure the culture was wrong. What she found was a renewed commitment to drive her change agenda.

At Harmonics we have been developing a programme of career development activities with our clients to help them align the realistic career progression opportunities with the needs of talent that ‘want it now’. These include:

• Career Conversations Workshops to equip Managers to have realistic career discussions
• Female Career Acceleration Coaching to target growing Female Leaders within Organisations https://www.harmonics.ie/women-finding-career-gear/
• Customised Mobile Career Portal for career coaching on the move for all employees https://www.harmonics.ie/career-management-portal/
• A range of informative Career Talks including the 4 Aces https://www.harmonics.ie/interview-justine-negri/
• Speed career coaching clinics at regular times each year to retain talent when they may be thinking about making their next move.
• Measuring the Career Pulse of your people through 7 key questions in a simple to use engagement survey

“The best way to predict your future is to create it” – Stephen Covey

To learn more about our programmes, please contact Harmonics on 01 8942616, 061 336136 or 021 7319604 or email info@harmonics.ie

John Fitzgerald is the Founder of the Harmonics Group. Harmonics specialises in helping organisations plan for change, manage change and support their people through change.